Safety device for power driven wringers



Aug. 23, 1955 Filed Nov. 14, 1949 J. A. CLEJFF SAFETY DEVICE FOR POWER DRIVEN WRINGERS 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Inventor 1 3% may;

A torn e y Aug. 23, 1955 J, A CLEIFF SAFETY DEVICE FOR POWER DRIVEN WRINGERS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed NOV. 14, 1949 Aug. 23, 1955 J. A. CLEIFF 2,715,327

SAFETY DEVICE FOR POWER DRIVEN WRINGERS Filed NOV. 14, 1949 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 F/GZ.

ttorney Aug. 23, 1955 J. A. CLEIFF SAFETY DEVICE FOR POWER DRIVEN WRINGERS Filed Nov. 14, 1949 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 W N mun: K7 ..||il 1||L I )6 Q r v w m\ 11/ n: q I Q J i ll I! v N ll II x El 1 I I l I I fl ll {k 9 \m om II: in Q m 5 mm mm WWI /.V.v\. 1| 1 3m o MN III/l lb ll ll 0 m N \h I nventor mm \m Attorney United States Patent SAFETY DEVICE FOR POWER DRIVEN WRINGERS Joseph Alexander Cleiff, Birmingham, England, assignor to Aluminium Bronze Company Limited, Walsall, England Application November 14, 1949, Serial No. 126,959

Claims priority, application Great Britain November 21, 1948 7 Claims. (Cl. 68263) This invention relates to domestic clothes wringers of the kind arranged to be driven by power and is more particularly concerned with safety devices for opening the rollers in case of the hand or hands of the operator becoming trapped therebetween.

To apply pressure to the clothes when passing between the rollers some form of spring means are usually incorporated, the pressure of which is relievable by moving a safety device known as a knock-off, which when appropriately operated allows the top roller to be lifted.

The invention consists in a wringer of the kind described in which the knockoff member is so arranged in relation to the roll holding device as to release the latter either by an upward movement of said member from normal position or by a downward movement therefrom.

Reference may be had to the accompanying drawings in which Figures 1 and 1a are sectional side elevations of a wringer according to the invention, showing the locking mechanism in the locked position.

Figure 2 is a sectional side elevation of the locking mechanism included in Figure 1, but in the released position.

Figure 3 is a plan of a spring and tension member included in Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a sectional end elevation on line 44 of Figure 1.

Figure 5 is a similar view to Figure 4 but showing the knock-ofi bar in operative position.

Figure 6 is a sectional end elevation on line 66 of Figure 1.

Figure 7 is a similar view to Figures 1 and 1a but with the locking mechanism and the top roller in released position, certain parts being omitted for clarity.

In a convenient embodiment of the invention preferred, spring mechanism for urging the rollers together includes at each end of the machine, a coiled compression spring 1. Said compression spring is placed so that its uppermost coil abuts against the underside of the bearing 2 for the bottom roller 6, while its lower-most coil presses against a tension member or slide 3 continued upwardly beyond the lower bearing for detachable connection to a fulcrumed beam which carries the bearings 4 for the top roller 5; thereby the top roller is pulled downwardly. The said tension members 3 conveniently have a hollow box-section and fit slidingly within the upright end columns 7 of the frame of the wringer which are connected to a support 30 for the frame by means of bolts 31 and 32. In this manner the sudden release of the spring pressure will not be accompanied by undue projection upwards of the top roller.

For driving the bottom roller, its axle is extended at one end 8 and may be provided with any suitable form of power transmission gearing not shown.

The bearings 4 of the upper roller depend from a beam member 9 fulcrumed on a pivot 10 at one end in the region of the right hand bearing 4 and at the other end is arranged for connection to or disconnection from the upper part of the left hand tension member 3, the arrangements being such that on release of the wringer pressure, the beam is turned upwards by pressure applied to an arm 12 extending beyond the pivot of the beam by a counterpoising spring 13 having reactive pressure suflicient to leave the beam and parts carried thereon counterpoised at a suitable angular position relative to the bottom roller, as shown in Figure 7. Since the spring energy is applied only at one end (i. e. the right-hand end) of the two rollers through the fulcrum 10 when the locking device is released and the beam starts to turn, the right hand spring is at a mechanical disadvantage and the releasing pressure of the spring 13 is thus of a very low order and, therefore, avoids injury or inconvenience concomitant of the spring release characteristic of prior machines. Application of wringer pressure is effected by a a downward manual displacement of the free end 11 of the beam with a high mechanical advantage, to a position where it is held by the locking device.

The locking mechanism shown includes a bellcrank lever 14 of the first order articulated by a pivot 14 on and near the end of the beam 9 remote from the pivot 10. The upper arm 15 of said bellcrank lever 14 extends along the top of the beam while the other arm 16 is more or less upright when in locking position. At the lower end of the locking part of the lever is provided a pair of laterally projecting pins 17 adapted to engage the horizontal legs of L slots 18 in the upper end of the relative tension member 3, the geometry of the arrangement being such that pressure tending to lift the top roller acts upwardly and the horizontal legs of the slots against which the pins abut lie at right angles to the arcuate path of th beam about its pivot. With this arrangement, the pins 17 of the locking arm when in locking position lies below and in vertical alignment with the fulcrum of the locking arm, as shown in Figure 1. By resisting the opening pressure as described, there is no tendency for self-retrogression of the pin arm. By moving the beam downwardly about its fulcrum, the locking pins may be first traversed down the upright limbs of the slots and then moved into locking position by angular displacement of the locking lever about its fulcrum by the use of one hand only in two successive motions.

For positively holding the locking lever in its locking position, there may be incorporated a rod 19 hinged at one end to the upper part of the locking lever 14 and provided with a tooth 20 shaped to engage with a static abutment 21 defining a lock member on the beam. A coiled tension spring 22 which is hooked at one end onto the rod and at the other end onto the beam is arranged to return the locking lever to the unlocked position shown in Figures 2 and 7 when the tooth is disengaged by the knockoff device.

The preferred embodiment of the release or knock-0E mechanism, according to the invention, includes a bar 23 passing transversely through a pair of slots 24 in the hollow beam 9 which encloses the detent device aforesaid, and is fast at each end with a knock-0E member 28 extending longitudinally of the machine and downwardly to terminate about halfway down the top roller, the object being to knock-off the release bar by a slight upward movement of the untrapped part of the hand or by the free hand. The bar 23 extending transversely through the beam is received in the pair of slots 24 one on each face of the beam in order that the release mechanism operates for either an upward movement or a downward movement of the beam; in the former case, the transverse bar fulcrums on the floor of the back slot as shown in dotted lines Figure 5 and in the latter event on the floor of the front slot as depicted in full lines Figure 5 so that an upward releasing motion of the bar V by contact with its lower. edge in the event of the spring failing or applying insufficient pressure.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is: 1. A power driven wringer of the'kind having a frame,

7 an upper roller operable in said frame and a lower roller and spring means arranged to apply working pressure to therollers' by acting on the rollers to urge the same toward each other, said upper roller being journally mounted on a beam fulcrumed at one end of said frame, and a locking mechanism for securing'said beam in and releasing it'from operative position, said mechanism including a locking lever pivoted on the part of the beam remote from its fulcrum, a locking catch pivoted on the said locking lever and extending longitudinally of the beam, an abutment on the beam engageable by the said catch to hold the beam and upper roller mounted thereon in operative position, a release bar mounted on two spaced fulcra on the beam for up and down movement and'extending transversely of the beam, said release bar when moved up or down being engageable with said locking catch for releasing the locking catch from said abutment.

2. ,A power driven wringer according to claim 1 including a lever arm fast with the said beam carrying the upper roller, an abutment on said frame, and a pressure means interposed between said lever arm and said abutment to apply torque to and counterpoise the beam when the beam is released by the release bar.

3. A wringer comprising a frame, a pair of rollers one above the other and operable in said frame, spring means acting on each end of the upper roller and urging said upper roller on to the lower roller, a beam located above and lengthwise of the upper roller, the said beam being fulcrumed within said frame about one end, and

the opposite'ends of the upper roller being journalled in' the-beam, a locking device mounted in the beam for retaining the beam in the position which holds the upper roller in spring driven contact with the lower roller, said locking device including a catch member extending longitudinally of the beam, said beam having two abutments spaced transversely thereof, a bar in contact with said two 'abutments and extending transversely of said beam and said catch member, a knock-off member disposed lengthwise of the frame'and fast with said bar for releasing the locking device, the said knock-off member being movable in either of two opposite directions from a normal position for operatively contacting said bar with said catch member and releasing the locking device, and counterbalancing means for turning the beam and the upper roller about the fulcrum of the beam and away from the lower roller when the locking device is released.

7 either of two opposite directions from a normal position, a beam disposed above and lengthwise of said upperroller for sustaining pressure between the said'rollers, the upper roller being journalled by its opposite ends in the beam and the said beam being journalled at one end in said frame about an axis arranged transversely of the rollers, an element operable by said knock-01f member and extending transversely through said beam, two supports on and spaced transversely of said beam and normally supporting said transverse element, said transverse element being fulcrumed on one'of said supports to release the beam when the knock-off member is' displaced in one of said opposite directions away from the normal position, and on the other of said supports to release the beam when theknock-off member is displaced in the other of said opposite directions away from the normal position,,a locking device to retain said beam in its operative position, said locking device being arranged intermediate the said supports and being tripped by either of said displacements of the knock-off member, and counterbalancing means on said beam for turning the beam about its fulcrum when the locking device is tripped.

5. A wringer comprising a frame, an upper roller and a lower roller operable in said frame, springmeans arranged to apply working pressure between the rollers by acting on the upper roller, said upper roller being journalled at each of its two opposite ends in a beam 'fulcrumed at one end in said frame, a knock-0E release mechanism including a releasable coupling for connecting the opposite end'of the said beam to the spring means, a lever which forms part of the said coupling and which is pivoted upon-thesaid beam, a locking member on selectively swingable on said fulcra and engageable with said locking device when swung about either of said fulcra for releasing'the locking device from the said locking member.

6. A wringer according to claim 5 including a lever' beam when the beam is released by the knock-off mechanism v I 7. A wringer according to claim 5 wherein said beam has two additional fulcra spaced transversely thereof and spaced longitudinally along said beam from said first mentioned two fulcra, and a second bar fixed with said release bar and extending transversely of said beam and normally mounted on said two additional fulcra, said second bar being'swingable on its fulcra with'said release bar and engageable with said lever when swung about either of its fulcra for assisting release of' said coupling.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

